


Arc Words

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Category: Night Court
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Male Character, Christine Sullivan is the only one who has it together, Dan Fielding is messed up, Episode Related, Harry Stone is a bisexual mess, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Referenced Polyamory, mention of death idealation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:18:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: Three times Harry and Dan said "I love you." Once in season 3's "The Hostage", once in season 4's "Dan's Operation", and once three years after the end of the series.





	Arc Words

**Author's Note:**

  * For [STEPHANIE SANTOS](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=STEPHANIE+SANTOS).



> I'm not certain that this is what you had in mind, but I hope you like it anyway.

_1985_

_This is just great_ , Harry thought. Not only was a defendant trying to hold Dan hostage, not only had Dan eaten the drugged burger intended for the man holding him hostage, but the defendant was convinced that he was from Saturn.

"I've been there," Mr. Slotkin insisted.

"I'll vouch for him on that," Dan's drugged voice said from the floor.

Harry turned to look at his currently very high prosecutor and sighed. " _Dan._ "

Dan looked up. "I love you....Harry." He slurred.

"I love you too Dan." Harry responded dryly.

"What a fruitcake huh?" Mr. Slotkin asked, tuning Harry's attention back onto him.

*~~~*

It wasn't until later that night that Harry realized what he had said.

"What did I say that for?" He asked out loud.

"Say what Your Honor?"

Harry turned around to see Christine standing in the doorway  looking quizzical.

"Why did I tell Dan that I loved him too?" He asked her.

"Well this is just a guess," Christine said, walking across the room to join him. "But maybe you told him that because you love him too."

Harry glared at her. "Did I mean it? Did _he_ mean it or was it just the drugs talking?"

"Why don't you say it to him again and find out?" Christine asked, obviously trying not to giggle.

"It isn't funny, Miss Sullivan." Harry said.

Christine just smiled knowingly at him.

Harry looked at Christine, gosh she was pretty. Being attracted to both men and women was awful, sometimes he thought he liked everyone. But did he like Dan?

"Does it matter?" He asked Christine finally. "Does it really matter whether we meant it? Or how?"

She looked at him seriously. "You're asking the wrong question. It's not what you say that's important. It's how you act. I'll see you tomorrow." She patted him on the shoulder and walked out the door.

Watching her leave, Harry considered what Christine had said and came to a conclusion.

"She's right." He told his picture of Mel. "I don't need to have an answer. Besides, he probably doesn't even remember that he said anything." He paused, "but I did mean it."

 

_1986_

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. After waking up from a three-day coma, Dan didn't seem to care how close they had come to losing him. Worse yet, he had just claimed to be glad that at the rate he was going he wouldn't live to see fifty. Didn't Dan understand how much he had to live for? How much he meant to his friends?

"It's better than the alternative," Dan said to Harry's horror.

"The alternative is living," Harry said passionately, hoping to make Dan see reason.

Dan tried to crack a joke, but Harry wasn't laughing. "You're afraid to grow old aren't you?"

"You see those new TV dinners they have now?" Dan asked. Harry gave up, Dan wasn't going to listen.

"...You can eat them right over the sink. All by yourself."

Harry stopped and turned back to Dan as it dawned on him. Dan wasn't afraid of aging. "You're afraid to grow old alone."

Dan ranted about ending up alone in a seedy apartment with dozens of cats and Harry had had enough.

"It doesn't have to be like that!" he yelled.

"I don't have a life Harry," Dan retorted. "I have a lifestyle. Do you know how many women I've slept with?"

The question and it's answer of billions distracted Harry for a moment, but there was no way he was letting the subject drop, not when Dan was in need of so much help.

"And out of all of them," Dan continued. "Not one of them ever said 'I love you'."

Harry pushed aside the retorts, the questions about Dan's relationship with Patty, the strange urge to promise to love Dan himself and searched for an answer to the problem at hand. "Okay, so you haven't found the right person, so you keep looking."

"Harry, I've dated the state." Dan said sounding aggravated.

"Then maybe you should move down the eastern seaboard," Harry suggested, unsure whether he was joking or not.

"You don't get it do you?" Dan demanded. "No one is ever going to love me. No one is ever going to say 'I love you.' You know why? Because in order to be loved, one must be able to give. And I can't give. I cannot. I have never been able to give!" He broke off. "And I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm a..."

"Bastard?" Harry suggested helpfully.

Dan managed to look offended for a moment. "Might be a weensy bit harsh. But you're right."

"You're also arrogant, self indulgent, vain and greedy and rotten," Harry said. Then he paused before continuing. "The whole truth is you're also kind, compassionate, caring... and you give," he added, so quietly that he wasn't sure Dan could hear him.

"That's a lousy thing to say," Dan broke in.

Harry stood. "Dan Fielding, you're decent. Admit it."

Dan refused, so Harry tried to give him reasons. Reminding him of the time when Dan had convinced Harry not to quit his job. And how he had sat up with Harry when he learned that his mother had died.

"Dan Fielding has a lot of shortcomings," Harry said. "But not being able to give, that's not one of them."

Looking Dan in the eye, Harry said the same thing he had said so carelessly a year earlier, but this time, he was deadly serious. "I love you."

"There are plenty who think you're scum," Harry added after a moment. "But those people don't count. Except for one."

"Who's that?" Dan asked.

"Dan Fielding." Harry ruffled Dan's hair, "Take care of yourself Buddy." and headed for the door.

Dan called him back. "Harry!"

"Yeah?"

"I l.."

"I lo.."

Dan sighed, clearly struggling with the words.

"You love him too!" Yelled the other patient in the room, ripping back the curtain. "Spit it out!"

Dan glared, then turned back to Harry. "There, I've said it."

Harry smiled, but it wasn't the other patient's declaration he was thinking of, it was Dan's words a year earlier. "Yeah you have. Now why don't you try saying it to yourself?" He looked at Dan seriously, and left the room.

 

_1995_

Dan sat on the couch flipping aimlessly through television channels, finally settling unenthusiastically on _Ellen_. Harry sprawled out on the couch next to his boyfriend, leaning on Dan's arm.

Christine had taken Charlie to visit her family for a few days, leaving Harry and Dan at home, much to their relief. The last time the four of them had seen Christine's family it had devolved into awkward questions about their relationship. Yes the three adults were all in a relationship. No it wasn't some weird sex cult thing. Yes they shared the responsibility of caring for a five year old. No it wasn't anybody's business what they did in their bedroom. After that disaster, Christine had agreed to let Harry and Dan stay home when she saw more distant relatives.

"Know what today is?" Harry asked.

Dan sighed, but played along. "What is today Harry?"

"It's our anniversary." Harry said excitedly, strongly reminding Dan of Charlie on Christmas morning.

Dan looked at Harry strangely. He never forgot the anniversary of the day they became a triad, and today wasn't it.

"No it isn't. We didn't get together until..."

"Not that anniversary," Harry interrupted him. "Ours. We've know each other for eleven years now."

"Oh." Dan thought back to the day they met. Harry had not been what any of them were expecting, and Dan had been fairly certain that he hated him. If anyone had told him that they would end up together, he would have said that they were as crazy as the new judge.

As if he had read Dan's mind, Harry started to grin. "You thought I was nuts didn't you?" He nudged Dan. "Bet you're surprised how things turned out."

"I'm just surprised you lived this long," Dan grumbled. Switching to a teasing tone he added, "if we didn't love you, Christine and I would have killed you years ago."

Harry's grin widened, "remember the first time you told me you loved me?"

"Harry, I couldn't get the words out." Dan said, "that patient in the other bed said it instead."

"You don't remember do you?" Harry asked.

"Remember what?"

"What you said to me after you ate that drugged burger. It was intended for the guy who was holding you hostage. The one from Saturn?"

Harry looked at Dan expectantly, and Dan remembered. The memory was fuzzy, but it was still there. _I love you too Dan._ Harry had said.

Dan looked down at Harry, who now had his head in Dan's lap. "You said it back."

Harry smiled back at him. "I did indeed. And I meant it. I guess I've always loved you."

"We'd known each other for two years before that," Dan countered.

"I'm trying to be romantic Dan," Harry said sounding put out.

Dan shook his head. "You're such a sap," he said as he leaned down to kiss Harry.

Harry put his arms around Dan's neck, "I love you too Dan," he said, and kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the dialogue in the first part of the 1985 section and in the 1986 section are from the episodes referenced. Although in the first, Harry's reply to Dan's declaration was a very dry "thank you Dan."
> 
> Christine isn't very bothered by the fact that Harry basically came out to her in that first part is she? I wonder how many other people have come out to her as bi or pan before. Or does she think he's gay? She hasn't been there very long at that point.
> 
> Whenever I watch "Dan's Operation" I start wondering why after everything that happened with Patty, Dan still believes that he can't give. So I thought it would be interesting if Harry also wondered that. I had a really tough time trying to hear the last thing Harry said in his list of Dan's good qualities, so I figured that maybe he had said it really softly. 
> 
> I hope that there was enough reflection in the 1986 section that it didn't feel like reading a copy of the script. But I couldn't imagine a story about Harry and Dan exchanging "I love you"s without including that episode.
> 
> In 1995 Dan is watching Ellen because I looked at an actual schedule of what was on television that day and nothing really sounded like the sort of program that would interest him, so I picked one at random (sadly, it wasn't The Puppy Episode that day.)
> 
> I picked 1995 because I wanted to make sure that it could follow either one of my H/D/C stories. I'm really proud of the list of responses to nosy relatives that I came up with, they may be a happily established triad, but that doesn't mean everyone understands it.
> 
> Dan neglects to note that really he's pretty lucky that H and C didn't decide to kill him years ago. Just kidding :)
> 
> By the way, here's a little bit of nonsense I wrote that didn't fit with the rest of the story, but may have fit the request better:  
> (alternate ending to part one where Dan overhears Harry's conversation with Christine)  
> "Harry?"  
> "Dan?"  
> Suddenly they were in each other's arms, kissing.  
> "Well then." Christine's voice could be heard saying. "I guess you don't need my help anymore." She laughed her way out the door, but Harry was too busy kissing Dan to care.


End file.
